Tuncurry/Forster, NSW

September 29 -October 1 we stayed with Ross Garrard in Tuncurry, NSW. About 306 miles north of Sydney.

On our first night Ross served up 4 dozen oysters for us and his friend, Michelle. What a feast we had. Ross' neighbor raises oysters -- these were early season and were great. Then we had chicken on the barbie, what else? Much good talk, food and wine followed.

On Tuesday Ross took us on a grand tour south along the coast some 60 miles in tandom with Issac, Ross' son and his eight-month old daughter, Scarlett. Issac's 4X4 camper/truck is outfitted with a built-in compressor. He loves driving on the beaches, where this is allowed.

There are many salt-water lakes of varied sizes that lie to the west of the road.

This coast has many long, sandy beaches, broken-up by high hilly ridges that jut out into the ocean. Along the drive we stopped to walk out to view the beaches. We saw a four foot long goauna sunning himself on a tree. We passed a few caravan parks, busy with people enjoying the warm Spring weather.

At every stop we saw dolphin cruising close to the shore and plenty of whales, too. As we reached Tea Gardens (where we turned around) we all piled into Issac's truck and after he deflated the tires we took off on the beach in deep sand. We stopped so Issac could catch a few waves as we watched the waves.

It was really neat to see the dolphin surfing the waves and emerging through, just like the human surfers. Issac, was outside of the dophins some of the time. They were crusing and doing flips. Further out we saw many whales breaching and spouting.

On the way back we stopped in to visit with Fred and Mary Garrard, Ross', mom and dad. Wr had a nice chat about mutual firends from Hawaii and , of course, Sue Wilson, Ross and Neil. Fred and Mary have a yard full of orchids and they also raise parrots.